Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia (Russian: Великий князь Никола́й Миха́йлович; 26 April [O.S. 14 April] 1859 – 28 January 1919) was the eldest son of Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia and a first cousin of Alexander III.
On 27 January 1919, Nicholas was moved to Peter and Paul Fortress in Petrograd, and in the early hours of the following day he was shot there by a firing squad, along with his brother, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich, and his cousins Grand Dukes Paul Alexandrovich and Dmitri Constantinovich.
According to historians Edvard Radzinsky, their executions had been ordered by Vladimir Lenin as retaliation for the recent summary executions of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg in Berlin, by Freikorps forces loyal to the Weimar Republic.
His brother Sandro described him in his memoirs as "a dreamer, a poet, a historian of out-and-out republican tendencies, a disillusioned bachelor worshipping the memory of his only love, the Queen of a Scandinavian country." This probably refers to Queen Victoria of Sweden, his maternal first cousin. According to Heribert Jansson's biography, they were in love and wished to marry, but could not, because the Russian Orthodox Church forbade unions between first cousins.
Honours and awards
Baden: Knight of the House Order of Fidelity, 1876
Württemberg: Grand Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown, 1876
Kingdom of Prussia: Pour le Mérite (military), 19 November 1878
Grand Duchy of Hesse: Grand Cross of the Ludwig Order, 10 March 1886
France: Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, December 1894
Denmark: Knight of the Order of the Elephant, 18 November 1897
Austria-Hungary: Decoration of Honour for Arts and Sciences, 1908
Sweden: Knight of the Order of the Seraphim, 12 May 1908